Now Angela started to suspect that there was something going on. Although she did not know what exactly it was, she knew it was nothing she was ready to hear about. But like they always say, where there is hope there is life. She kept hoping that it wouldn’t be anything beyond her capacity to handle.

“I’m Sister Joyce. And you?”

“I’m Angela – first born daughter to Mrs Universe.” Angela replied. At this time, she was already dying to hear why they called her separately.

“Well, Angie. As you know, your mother was ill and she was having a difficult time for a long period of time,” Angela kept nodding while Sister Joyce was explaining to her. “So it is very sad that I must tell you that she didn’t make it through. She passed away about an hour ago. Now, we would expect that you make arrangements with your elderly family members to move her from the hospital mortuary to a private one, since we are only allowed to keep her for a maximum period of a day.” Joyce concluded.

Since she heard that her mother had passed away, Angela didn’t want to hear anything anymore. Her world had immediately shut right in front her. Remember, this was the only parent she had and now, as if death loved her family dearly, her only mother just passed away. Every part of her body was heavy and she couldn’t move anymore. Now, seeing the difficulty Angela had in dealing with the news she had received, Sister Joyce requested that she pass by the social worker’s office for assistance before she could leave.

Time passed and the funeral arrangements were made with the assistance and contribution of the community members since there was nobody who could really take the full responsibilities of the service within the family. During the arrangements, Angela managed to call Joe and inform him about the funeral and the arrangements thereof. And as Joe was also facing financial challenges, he couldn’t make it to his girlfriend’s mother’s funeral. However, he tried to use the little money that he had to call her and supported her throughout the remaining time before the burial.

Things went well and Angela’s mother was buried the next Saturday.

But things changed instantly and life got tough for Angela since her mother’s funeral. She struggled to cope with her studies and the responsibilities at home. She had to fill her mother’s shoes and take care of her little sister Jane who was only seven years old and had just started schooling about ten months ago.

Angela had to ensure that she did all the chores that mothers do, although she had no experience at all. As a result, Angela’s performance at school deteriorated. At the end of the year she failed her grade twelve, and she had to repeat it. Like they say ‘Life is no fairy-tale, no rainbows, it will kick you down to its foundation sometimes.’

Joe on the other side had made it, and he was now going to start his second year at the university. And for this year, he had managed to get nice symbols for his courses and that had earned him a bursary that would cover not only his tuition fees and books, but also food, accommodation, and monthly allowance. Things were now going to be much better for him. And when he explained this to Angela, she also hoped that it would also make it easy for both of them to keep in touch and help each other. But life became different when the following year came.

Well, in the first three months it was much better. Joe could send some little money from his allowance’s money for Angela and Jane to live on. But on the fourth month he started to give an excuse about the trip they were going to make to Durban for study purposes. He didn’t send them anything. And for that month they survived on the leftovers from the previous month and when there was nothing left, they started asking from the neighbours. And although their neighbours were not keen to assist, they only assisted for those two remaining weeks, hoping that as the month was going towards the end, things would change.

***

Tell us: What do you think Angela should do?